Smartphone Wars: Latest Survey Shows Google Leads

Data from Nielsen’s (NYSE:NLSN) May survey of mobile consumers seems to indicate that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android OS phones are continuing to dominate the smartphone market, holding 38% market share compared to #2 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS smartphones, which tallied a 27% share. Coming in at third with 21% of the market were Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) blackberry phones, with a large lead over Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) windows OS mobiles (9%), and barely relevant Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Symbian OS smartphones (2%).

Contrary to what Google’s Andy Rubin and others were saying, the company’s growth in new consumers slumped somewhat in Q1 2011, leveling off at 27% of recent mobile phone purchases, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) upped its growth rate to 17% of new mobile consumers in April and May. More troubling news for RIMM as blackberry phones drop to 6% in May, down from 11% earlier in the year, of new mobile purchases.

Also very notable statistics on smartphones becoming majority of new cell purchases, “Smartphones continue to grow in popularity. According to Nielsen’s May survey of mobile consumers in the U.S., 38 percent now own smartphones. And 55 percent of those who purchased a new handset in the past three months reported buying a smartphone instead of a feature phone, up from 34 percent just a year ago.”